South Korea election: Park Geun-hye defeats Moon Jae-in

South Korea's President-elect, Park Geun-hye, has said her victory will help the country's economy recover.

Ms Park, the daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee,
defeated her liberal rival Moon Jae-in. She will be South Korea's first
female leader.

Votes are still being counted, but Mr Moon has admitted
defeat. Turnout was high in a poll dominated by economic and social
welfare issues.

Ms Park will replace her party colleague Lee Myung-bak.

He is stepping down as the law requires after his five-year term.

Park Geun-hye's win means that South Korea now has its first
female president. In a country where rapid modernisation exists
alongside ancient Confucian values, many people are saying her election
will prompt real social change.

Ms Park has already served as South Korea's first lady, after
her mother was assassinated in the 1970s. Now she's won a stint in her
father's role, she'll face loud demands to reform the big family
conglomerates he created, whilst protecting the country's modern economy
from the effects of the global slowdown.

Supporters of her liberal rival, Moon Jae-in, have accused Ms
Park of belonging to the past, and of having little understanding of
the rough and tumble of modern democratic government.

With the country having split almost equally along party
lines in this election, Park Geun-hye will have to work hard to improve
relations with her detractors here at home.

Combined figures from the networks released after polls closed gave Ms Park 50.1% of the vote over Mr Moon's 48.9%.

"This is a victory brought by the people's hope for
overcoming crisis and economic recovery," she told supporters in the
capital Seoul.

From the moment polls opened at 06:00 on Wednesday (21:00 GMT
on Tuesday), millions of South Koreans queued to cast their ballots
despite freezing temperatures.

Ms Park's supporters cheered as poll figures emerged.

Both bolstered and dogged by the legacy of her father, who
built South Korea's economy while crushing dissent, she apologised in
September for human rights abuses under his administration.

Mr Moon of the Democratic United Party is a former human
rights lawyer who served under former President Roh Moo-hyun. He was
briefly jailed by Ms Park's father in the 1970s.

Both candidates put forward broadly similar policies,
promising to boost social welfare spending, close the gap between the
rich and poor and rein in the family-run giant conglomerates known as
chaebol.

On the issue of North Korea, which did not feature heavily in
the campaign despite its recent rocket launch, both candidates promised
more engagement with Pyongyang - though, in Ms Park's case, more
cautiously than her rival.

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